Geese get reprieve

Canada geese residing within the Sault Ste. Marie City Limits will get another reprieve in 2013 as there will not be a hunt this fall.

“It’s our opinion, this effort is not a good use of our staff time,” said City Manager Spencer Nebel noting the last hunt — in 2011 — only yielded one goose for the participants.

That’s a far cry from the city’s inaugural hunt in 1999, where approximately 30 hunters harvested 155 geese from various locations including the lower islands, Ashmun Bay, Sherman Park and local athletic fields. City officials authorized the hunt due to tremendous impact the resident geese were having on park and golf course properties.

Despite conducting hunts for more than a decade, participants never came close to duplicating the harvest numbers recorded during the first six days of the early goose season in Sept. of 1999, eventually dropping the hunt in 2012.

While it won’t be employed this season, it appears as though hunting will still be part of the three-pronged approach to be used in the future.

The 2013 effort consisted of removing more than 200 young geese from park properties — utilizing Department of Public Works and Parks and Recreation employees along with a contingent from the Chippewa County Jail to herd up the goslings before they learned to fly.

All of the corralled birds were shipped over to the Shingleton area for release.

Parks and Recreation Director Dan Wyers said the previous releases have been done at Stanley Lake in Schoolcraft County, but it appears as though that particular location has reached capacity, with future birds destined for either Worchester or Kingston Lake.

Nebel added the relocated geese do not return to the Sault as biologists have determined the young birds imprint on the place where they learn to fly and will come back to breed and rear their young somewhere in the area where Alger, Schoolcraft and Luce counties meet.

The third prong of the goose control approach also fell by the wayside this year, according to city officials, due to the extended hockey season requiring ice at Pullar Stadium. The city was unable to coordinate the nest destruction effort which is generally done sometime in mid-May to further reduce the number of birds.

“It really does destroy the parks if we let it go one year or two years,” said Mayor Anthony Bosbous, recalling the days when goose droppings were problematic at various locations throughout the community.

The city, since beginning these programs in 1999, has always maintained that the elimination of the Canada goose was not their intended goal, rather they were looking for a remedy where the birds would remain without creating a nuisance for those who use area golf courses, parks and athletic fields.